Neuroimaging the biomechanics of designer drugs

Designer drugs are “legal highs” that empower euphoria, concomitantly with intense behavioral aggression and yet, these “designers” escape, for the most part, a global Controlled Substance designation. The issue is that these designer drugs may well factor into the realm of “dangerous” but the specific molecular moiety that is responsible for the danger actually cannot be readily detected by current assays. One designer “benzohigh” is the triazolobenzodiazepine, adinazolam, Deracyn® and the World Health Organization (WHO) has placed adinazolam on surveillance or a “watch” status before their further recommendation. Adinazolam enjoys a lucrative recreational market that is not at all pharmaceutical as the molecule has no known medical use. It’s curious then, that adinazolam reached its status as a designer drug despite its sagacious beginnings as duly rooted in its medical indication to treat both anxiety and depression.